CHAP X.] 
THE PAL/E ARCTIC REGION. 
221 
slopes of the Khingan and Peling mountains ; and China to 
the Nanlin mountains south of the Yang-tse-kiang. On the 
coast of China the dividing line between it and the Oriental 
region seems to be somewhere about Eoo-chow, but as there is 
here no natural barrier, a great intermingling of northern and 
southern forms takes place. 
Japan is volcanic and mountainous, with a fine climate and a 
most luxuriant and varied vegetation. Manchuria is hilly, with 
a high range of mountains on the coast, and some desert tracts 
in the interior, but fairly wooded in many parts. Much of 
northern China is a vast alluvial plain, backed by hills and 
mountains with belts of forest, above which are the dry and 
barren uplands of Mongolia. We have a tolerable knowledge 
of China, of Japan, and of the Amoor valley, but very little of 
Corea and Manchuria. The recent researches of Pere David in 
Moupin, in east Thibet, said to be between 31 and 32 north 
latitude, show, that the fauna of the Oriental region here advances 
northward along the flanks of the \ un-ling mountains (a 
continuation of the Himalayas) ; since he found at different 
altitudes representatives of the Indo-Chinese, Manchurian, and 
Siberian faunas. On the higher slopes of the Himalayas, there 
must be a narrow strip from about 8,000 to 11,000 feet elevation 
intervening between the tropical fauna of the Indo-Chinese sub- 
region and the almost arctic fauna of Thibet ; and the animals 
of this zone will for the most part belong to the fauna of 
temperate China and Manchuria, except in the extreme west 
towards Cashmere, where the Mediterranean fauna will in like 
manner intervene. On a map of sufficiently large scale, there- 
fore, it would be necessary to extend our present sub-region 
westward along the Himalayas, in a narrow strip just below 
the upper limits of forests. It is evident that the large number 
of Fringillidse, Corvidm, Troglodytidm, and Paridm, often of south 
Palsearctic forms, that abound in the higher Himalayas, are some- 
what out of place as members of the Oriental fauna, and aie 
equally so in that of Thibet and Siberia; but they form a 
natural portion of that of Horth China on the one side, or of 
South Europe on the other. 
